Overnight Briefing & General Reality Check - Nov 13, 2017

Chocolate, Caffeine, Alcohol, etc:

Despite declining rates of cigarette smokers seen in recent years, too many Americans are still using tobacco, according to a new government report. The report, published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) Center for Tobacco Products, found that one in five U.S. adults used some type of tobacco product in 2015. CBS News says cigarette smoking causes more than 480,000 deaths each year in the United States. That's equivalent to nearly one in five deaths.
The majority of tobacco users --about 42 million adults-- reported using a combustible product, such as cigarettes, cigars, or pipes, including hookahs and water pipes. The remaining seven million adult users opted for e-cigarettes or smokeless tobacco products such as chewing tobacco, snuff, dip, snus and dissolvable tobacco. Cigarettes were the most popular tobacco product, used by 15.1 percent of American adults. E-cigarettes were the choice of 3.5 percent. (Bartha)

Pet Patrol:

Apparently service animals should weigh more than two pounds.
Forty-year-old RYAN BOYLAN, of Clearwater, Florida, is being evicted from his apartment because he has a service squirrel named Brutis to deal with his anxiety. He took Brutis in after Hurricane Matthew and helped nurse her back to health and since then has kept her in his apartment. She perches on the ceiling fan and runs around his apartment.
Ryan says he decided to keep her at his place as an "emotional support animal" this summer, after his doctor gave him a note but the condo board had already found out about her and sent him an eviction notice. Boylan says, "There's just no way I would give her up." SHERRY ARFA, a former condo member said a squirrel is a wild animal no matter and it simply must go. See Brutis here. (Myers)

Grace notes from Vinny Marino:

SHAWN MENDES won big at the MTV Europe Music Awards last night in London. Variety says he took home best song for "There's Nothing Holding Me Back," and best artist. Shawn had five nominations. TAYLOR SWIFT had the most with six but didn't win any. The EMAs were hosted by RITA ORA at the SSE Area in Wembley, but there were live performances from all over London. UK. EMINEM did his new single, "Walk On Water" from a pub, while U2 rocked "Get Out of Your Own Way" from Trafalgar Square. U2 also took home the global icon award. KENDRICK LAMAR won best video for "Humble," and DUA LIPA got best new artist. (Marino)